Main menu

The Destination Project

November 21, 2013

When a group of Lethbridge citizens rallied together in the 1960s to establish a University in Lethbridge, they imagined infinite possibilities. Today the U of L is recognized as one of Canada’s leading universities and has far exceeded its founders’ most ambitious expectations.

That spirit of “imagining the possibilities” has remained at the heart of the U of L for nearly half a century, and it will shape what the institution will become over the next 50 years.

In planning for the Destination Project, the University has been imaginative and innovative in its thinking.

Last year, the University introduced the University Campus Master Plan, the most extensive development plan the University of Lethbridge has undertaken since the original west campus was developed. A cornerstone of the plan is the Destination Project – the construction of a new academic building, the revitalization of University Hall and the construction of a new central plant for the University.

“The Destination Project will contribute to Alberta’s need to recruit the best and brightest scientific talent to our province, enhance our research capacity and enable the aspirations of the next generation of researchers and entrepreneurs,” explains U of L President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mike Mahon.

The construction of a new science facility and the revitalization of University Hall will provide a great opportunity to help define liberal education at the U of L for the 21st century.

“We can lead the academic world in redefining liberal education to support the ever-changing nature of teaching and scholarship, and enable our students to be best prepared for our world’s evolving landscape,” says Mahon.

In planning for the Destination Project, the University has been imaginative and innovative in its thinking, and envisions the concept of the new science facility as more than a teaching and research space, but a place for community engagement and outreach.

University Teaching and Research SpaceThe Destination Project will bring together faculty and students from across the science disciplines, promoting and enabling curricular innovation, helping students achieve their academic goals and fostering a community of science at the U of L and within southern Alberta. It will create new environments and subsequently new paths by which information and ideas can be shared.

These facilities will house exceptional research laboratories. They will build on the U of L’s demonstrated success in attracting world-leading researchers to Alberta who are working to solve some of the most pressing problems our society faces today. This will be where scientists not only invite industry, community groups and government to learn about their latest discoveries, it will be a place where bench space is shared between them. It will be where partnerships are born and ideas become reality.

Business Development and Commercialization The Destination Project will be a place where undergraduate and graduate research opportunities flourish, where knowledge transfer and commercialization happen; the place the next generation of researchers, scientists and scholars credit for the start of their science careers. It will be a place where undergraduate and graduate students can begin their careers in the sciences, where they can take their ideas and, with the help of faculty researchers, entrepreneurs and industry mentors, turn them into productive businesses.

It will include incubation space to be used by industry, entrepreneurial Albertans and investors from around the world. The Destination Project will be the bedrock that ensures Lethbridge is home to one of Canada’s renowned high-tech and innovation hubs and southern Alberta continues to create wealth for the entire province.

A Science Centre for Southern Alberta

This facility will be a centre for community engagement. It will offer rich resources for lifelong learning, provide meeting places for citizens and the research community, support schools and contribute to the cultural and economic vitality of communities. It will be an educational resource for teachers who provide curriculum-aligned learning opportunities and experiences for the K-12 system in Alberta.

The great science teachers who already emerge from the U of L will attain a new standard of education and training unmatched anywhere in the world. It will also be a welcoming, interactive and fun venue for children and their families to visit for a day or a week through already-established community initiatives like science camps. The Destination Project will enable a hands-on approach to learning that will ignite a greater curiosity for science in our community.

Related Topics

Latest SAM Articles

50 Research Chairs by the University of Lethbridge's 50th Anniversary in 2017. It's ambitious. It's aspirational. And above all it affirms the University's commitment to continuing to build one of Canada's leading research environments.

For Dr. Brenda Leung, getting sick as a child meant facing a somewhat daunting remedy: a foul-tasting, homemade herbal concoction prepared by her mother that was tough to swallow – but that ultimately did the trick.

At universities around the world, undergraduate students study the results of academic research, but typically they aren’t invited to help generate those findings themselves. Something different, however, is happening at the University of Lethbridge.

Five University of Lethbridge management students have proven they have what it takes to advise a board of directors how to govern in an ethical and responsible manner, and earned a $10,000 prize for their efforts.

University of Lethbridge students Karissa Patton (BA ’13) and Maria Livingston worked together on an oral history project aimed at helping people enhance their understanding of artist Nicholas de Grandmaison

Lisa Doolittle once lived the life of a professional artist, drawing on the passion for her craft as a dancer and choreographer to create a shared experience with her audience. That passion still burns inside Doolittle, only now the outlet is academia.